Port Mirroring on a Cisco 3550 Switch

Many of my friends who are still somewhat religious despite being
freethinkers see the benefits of rejecting ideologies that are untrue, but
they wonder what will fill the void. They wonder what you’re supposed to…believe in
once you truly shed all superstition.

How do you go on? What do you base your life on? What gives you meaning? Why
even get up in the morning? Because they lack answers to these questions
they cling to a nerfed and sanitized version of the faith they were injected
with as children.

Image from secularhumanism.org

Well, here’s an alternative. The following principles are the basis of
Secular Humanism, a
life stance
that I find to be extraordinary in its ability to capture how I, and most
other freethinkers I know, view the world.

The Principles of Secular Humanism

Here’s the list from
secularhumanism.org.

• We are committed to the application of reason and science to the
  understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.

• We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain
  the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for
  salvation.

• We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to
  the betterment of human life.

• We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the
  best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and
  repressive majorities.

• We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state.

• We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of
  resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding.

• We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with
  eliminating discrimination and intolerance.

• We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that
  they will be able to help themselves.

• We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race,
  religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or
  ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity.

• We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future
  generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other
  species.

• We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative
  talents to their fullest.

• We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence.

• We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to
  fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to
  exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and
  informed health-care, and to die with dignity.

• We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty,
  truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical,
  rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover
  together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences.

• We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We
  want to nourish reason and compassion.

• We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences.

• We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to
  be made in the cosmos.

• We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to
  novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking.

• We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair
  and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance
  and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.

• We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair,
  learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather
  than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of
  hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and
  reason rather than blind faith or irrationality.

• We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we
  are capable of as human beings.

Here’s a shorter list of tenets from
Wikipedia’s Secular Humanism article:

• Need to test beliefs – A conviction that dogmas, ideologies and
  traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and
  tested by each individual and not simply accepted on faith.

• Reason, evidence, scientific method – A commitment to the use of
  critical reason, factual evidence and scientific methods of inquiry,
  rather than faith and mysticism, in seeking solutions to human problems
  and answers to important human questions.

• Fulfillment, growth, creativity – A primary concern with fulfillment,
  growth and creativity for both the individual and humankind in general.

• Search for truth – A constant search for objective truth, with the
  understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our
  imperfect perception of it.

• This life – A concern for this life and a commitment to making it
  meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our
  intellectual and artistic achievements, and the outlooks of those who
  differ from us.

• Ethics – A search for viable individual, social and political principles
  of ethical conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human
  well-being and individual responsibility.

• Building a better world – A conviction that with reason, an open
  exchange of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in
  building a better world for ourselves and our children.

Discussion

So, what does this system lack in terms of a replacement for religious
belief? It lacks the completely unfounded tenet that we’ll live forever. The
idea that somehow, despite no evidence to support it, we will continue on
after we die.

As many before me have pointed out, this fantasy does not improve life here
on Earth. life is even more beautiful because it’s temporary. It
makes beautiful things that much more beautiful, and it makes things like
war and hatred that much more unbearable.

So, to all my friends still struggling with beliefs that they are unable to
shake despite knowing they’re not true, I ask you to look into this. The
odds are that it captures your belief system quite well.:

Links

[
Secular Humanism | wikipedia.org
][
Council for Secular Humanism | secularhumanism.org
]